Amidst continuing unrest in the ruling BJP over ticket distribution for the 17 November Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh minister Rustam Singh resigned from the party on Monday.

In a letter addressed to state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma, Singh, 78, said he is resigning from the BJP’s primary membership and all party positions.

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The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Rustam Singh’s son, Rakesh Singh, from Morena seat. Since then, there was speculation that Rustam Singh may leave the ruling BJP to campaign for his son in Morena.

An influential Gurjar leader from Gwalior-Chambal region, Rustam Singh resigned from the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 2003 and joined the BJP.

He was an MLA for two terms, from 2003-2008 and 2013-2018.

Rustam Singh served as a minister for two terms from 2003-2008 and 2015-2018.

Meanwhile, reacting to the ongoing unrest in the BJP, Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel condemned the protests staged by workers of BJP over ticket distribution in Jabalpur, where they misbehaved with Union Minister and MP BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and even thrashed his security guard.

Prahlad Patel said that the incident that occurred in Jabalpur was shameful, unfortunate and condemnable.

The troubles of the opposition Congress over ticket distribution also continued unabated even today, as a large number of Congress activists from Shujalpur in Shajapur district and Hoshangabad in Narmadapuram district gheroed the Bungalow of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath in Bhopal.

The protesters demanded that the ticket given to Ramveer Singh Sikarwar should be scrapped and instead Yogendra Singh alias Bunty Bana should be made the party candidate from Shujalpur.

This is for the second time in the last three days that the protesters have come to Bhopal to protest against Sikarwar.

Likewise, supporters of Chandra Gopal Malaiya protested and demanded that the nomination from Hoshangabad seat should be changed.

They demanded that the ticket of Girijashanker Sharma, who had recently joined Congress after being two time former BJP MLA, should be canceled and Malaiya, an old Congress leader, should be made the party’s official candidate from there.